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Visited: summer
Recommendation: This track gave me so many local endemics and I loved wandering around it in the early morning. Leading from the campground to the meadow it is a wonderful walk.
The Little Desert is so named because it is an area close to the Big Desert and because it has soil unsuitable for farming. It receives enough rain to allow many different flora to flourish. As well as being very beautiful, I wanted to see it for the areas of heath, where I thought I would find some special endemic animals.
There is a campground within the Little Desert and several different tracks leading from it, as well as pasture on one side and a good chunk of woodland surrounding the camping spots. I started with the Red Gum Track. The track itself was a deep orange, flattened sand. No good for my van but ok to walk on. It was quiet though, particularly having just come from the rowdy campground and its tracks. It is always a very good thing when campsites have such walks as it means I can explore the outback in relative safety. I was away before the sun came up and this is always my favourite time of day. It is not too hot, the flies are still asleep and the birds are active.
About half a kilometre in, I saw a honeyeater sitting up and was very pleased to see it was a White-eared Honeyeater. It sat and sang.
White-eared Honeyeater (Nesoptilotis leucotis)
Nothing else much was moving or singing and so I turned around. At the entrance to the track, I heard a melodius call. I try to learn the calls of local birds as I get very annoyed when I hear a call I don't know. This one was new but I immediately knew it. The Shy Heathwren. The bush lining the road was dense but I could peer through the bottom of it. I didn't get the heathwren but there, sitting in a patch of sunlight was the Southern Scrub Robin. And just for once, my view was unobstructed.
Southern Scrub Robin (Drymodes brunneopygia)
And right behind it was the heathwren. I couldn't get a shot but a great sighting nonetheless.
Despite its name, isn't particularly shy when compared to other bird species. They spend most of their time on the ground, hopping around in leaf litter and low vegetation. Their primary diet consists of insects, which they glean from the ground or vegetation. They rarely eat seeds. Not the most agile birds, their foraging movements are described as jerky and hesitant.
Shy Heathwren (Hylacola cauta)
Back on the road in the warming sun, I found a bearded dragon. It sat very still and let me photograph it. The Central Bearded Dragon is found in a band across the semi-arid interior of eastern Australia, including western New South Wales, northern Victoria, and wherever suitable habitat can be found across these regions . They are skilled climbers and can be found in a variety of habitats including semi-arid woodlands, arid woodlands and rocky desert areas.
Central Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps)
I really liked this track and was quite amazed at how different it was, yet so close to the campground. I was up and walking early the next morning as well and the first interesting bird I found was the Hooded Robin. An adult male was feeding a youngster. The adult was too quick for me but the juvenile obviously had other things on its mind as it sat quite still for me.
Hooded Robin (Melanodryas cucullata)
In the same area honeyeaters, robins, swallows, martins and doves all flew about. It was just such a lovely space. I stood and just waited. My reward was a Diamond Firetail landing right in front of me. What a spectacular bird.
I always thought that firetail were a member of the finch family. Indeed, the Red-browed Firetail is also known as the Red-browed Finch. Firetails and other Australian finches belong to the family Estrildidae. These birds are native to Africa, Asia, and Australia. They are known for their colourful plumage, and the Diamond Firetail is a popular example.
True finches belong to the family Fringillidae. This family includes a much wider variety of species found all over the world except for Antarctica and Australia (with a few exceptions). Examples of true finches include canaries, goldfinches, and redpolls.
Diamond Firetail (Stagonopleura guttata)
It was quickly replaced by a Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo. This attractive bird is named after Thomas Horsfield, a 19th-century naturalist.
Horsfield, along with Nicholas Vigors, described and named a number of Australian birds in a landmark publication titled "A description of the Australian birds in the collection of the Linnean Sociery with an attempt at arranging them according to their natural affinities" published in the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London in 1827.
His name is commemorated not just in the Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo, but also in the names of at least 15 other Australian bird species.
Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx basalis)
Round the corner, back in a more wooded area I was tracking some doves when I heard a kerfuffle in the bushes next to me. Must be babbler. There is a reason why they are called babblers! This juvenile jumped around on a log in front of me. I had to wait a while for it to come into the sun.
White-browed Babbler (Pomatostomus superciliosus)
Before arriving here, I really did think the Jacky Winter robin was a rather plain, dull bird. Unlike the unfriendly parrots, which I have not managed to photograph, these little birds seem to be ready to pose for me at every turn.
Jacky Winter (Microeca fascinans)
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